


Life's A Beach

by Kiraly



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Alternate Universe - Beach, Fluff and Angst, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 11:19:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15971255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiraly/pseuds/Kiraly
Summary: The crew takes a beach vacation, and Lalli can't stand it. At least, not until Emil comes to cheer him up.





	Life's A Beach

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't seen the sun for almost a week, so I desperately needed some fluffy sunshine in my life. I got to thinking about the [Beach AU Art](http://sssscomic.com/mainimages/art/beach_day.jpg) that Minna drew in one of her streams, and this grew from there.

A warm salt breeze blew in from the sea, stirring leaves on the palm trees. Sunlight reflected off the waves; the ocean was, somehow, even bluer than the sky. All along the beach, people played in the water or on the sand, talking and laughing without a care in the world.

Lalli hated it.

Even the snack bar couldn’t make the day any better. He had a cookie—it had looked good, when Emil brought it to him. But then Reynir showed up with a ball and a stupid grin, and he and Emil went off to kick sand at each other. The cookie turned to sand in Lalli’s mouth after that.

It wasn’t fair, the way Emil caught the sun in his stupid golden hair and sent it back out in his stupid smiles, with his stupid sea-blue eyes inviting Lalli to share his delight. He had no right to go running around without a shirt on, letting the sun bake his skin like a perfect cookie. And the worst part was, he  _ didn’t know.  _ He acted like he always did, treated Lalli just the same. As though every little thing he did wasn’t slowly driving Lalli insane.

All Lalli could do was stay away from him. That should have been easy; Emil insisted on spending time in the sun, so Lalli only had to see him when he came back into the shade like a sensible person. Unfortunately, Emil and Reynir were close enough that he could hear them, and he couldn’t stop himself from looking in their direction sometimes. Sand, water, ball, Icelander with too much hair, shirtless Emil—Lalli squeezed his eyes shut and turned away.

“Hey! Can one of you help me with this?”

Lalli’s head snapped up and his eyes shot open. He hadn’t heard Emil’s approach, muffled by the sand. But there he was in all his golden glory, shaking his head to settle his hair back in place. He held out a bottle of sunscreen, looking from Sigrun and Mikkel—who sat on the other side of the pavilion, eating ice cream—to Lalli. 

“Anyone? Sunscreen?” He smiled, offering the bottle. 

It was all too much. Lalli  _ couldn’t  _ do what Emil wanted—if he started touching him, he’d never stop. So instead he ran away.

There weren’t any really good hiding places at the stupid beach resort. The beds were too low to get under; Lalli had tried on the first day, with no success. And there was no forest to run into and disappear like he did at home, only useless palm trees and sand, always more sand. So Lalli had to make do with throwing himself down on the bed in his tiny shared room, turning his back to the door, and pretending to be asleep. Which, of course, didn’t work at all.

“Lalli?” Emil’s voice came out breathless, like he’d had to run hard to catch up. His step creaked on the loose floorboard, and then the latch clicked softly closed. “Lalli, are you all right?”

He wasn’t, and any idiot could see that. But Lalli had to try. “I’m fine.” The words barely came out.

Emil wasn’t convinced. “You jumped up and ran away. Are you sure?”

Stupid,  _ stupid  _ Emil and his stubborn concern. “FINE,” Lalli said. If Emil didn’t leave right now, he was going to do something unforgivable. 

“Was it something I said? I only wanted someone to help me with the sunscreen.”

With a growl, Lalli lurched up from the bed and faced Emil. “Sunscreen? Is that what you think?” He took a step forward, bringing his face level with Emil’s startled gaze. “Why do you have to be so stupid all the time?”

Now Emil looked hurt as well as confused. “I don’t know! Maybe because you never tell me anything? If you didn’t want to help, you could have just said so.”

“What I want—” Lalli shook his head. This was hopeless. “Stupid Emil.” He caught Emil by the shoulders, pulled him close, and kissed him. There was one second of shock—he could feel Emil’s gasp through their joined lips—and then Emil was kissing him back, finally. Lalli let himself fall into it, let his hands wander over the smooth expanse of skin he’d been longing to touch all day. When they drew apart to breathe, his lips tasted of salt, and Emil wore a stunned expression. 

“Oh,” he said, so close Lalli could feel the air rush out, “That’s what...oh.” 

Lalli didn’t have a response for that, so he went in for another kiss. Emil pulled him closer, one hand gripping his waistband while the other slid under his shirt and roamed upward. Shivers ran up and down Lalli’s spine, and he was so distracted by the touch that when Emil tipped backwards, it never occurred to him to pull away. Then Emil was lying on the bed with Lalli on top of him, both of them breathing hard.

Emil started to laugh. Lalli stiffened, but Emil reached up to smooth the hair away from his forehead and rested the hand on his jaw. “No, wait, I’m not laughing at you. It’s just...I thought something was wrong, when you wouldn’t come out in the sun and you looked so miserable. I thought  _ I  _ had done something wrong. But all this time, you wanted to kiss me just as much as I wanted you.” He sighed, smiling that stupid grin. “Thank the gods.”

Lalli snorted a laugh of his own. “That wasn’t the  _ only  _ reason.” He propped himself up on his elbows, which gave him a better view of Emil’s hair spread across the sheets, and traced patterns on Emil’s chest. “The sand is terrible. And the sun! It’s too hot.”

“You wouldn’t be so hot if you’d take off this long sleeved shirt,” Emil said, tweaking Lalli’s collar. “I wouldn’t mind seeing that.” He blushed as he said it.

Lalli paused, as though considering. “I could. After all, it’s not sunny in here.” He looked at Emil, waiting, and was rewarded with another smile. 

“You could.” Emil’s hands found the hem of his shirt, and Lalli made no effort to stop him as he slid it up. The sleeves got in the way; it was a relief to be rid of them. Especially when Emil made his appreciation known, following the lines of Lalli’s body with his hands as well as his eyes. It better than he’d dared to hope, worth all the frustrated waiting. For this, Lalli could put up with the sun and the ocean and even the stupid sand.

After a while, Emil said, “It’s still too bad, you spending the whole vacation hiding from the sun. Are you  _ sure  _ you have to wear that shirt?” He pressed a kiss against Lalli’s shoulder. “We are at the beach, you know. You’re allowed to go without one.”

Lalli sighed, nuzzling into Emil’s hair. “Can’t. Sunburn.” Unlike Emil, the sun just made him red and miserable.

“That’s what sunscreen is for,” Emil said. His gaze met Lalli’s, and there was a wicked glint in his eyes. “I could help you put it on, if you want.”

“After I put it on you, you mean?” Lalli said. The tube of sunscreen lay on the floor where Emil had dropped it. “Yeah. I guess we could do that.”

_ Maybe _ , Lalli thought, as he retrieved the sunscreen and set about applying it to Emil’s back,  _ the beach isn’t so bad after all.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Oh yeah, even though Lalli doesn't mention her, Tuuri is totally here too, building a sandcastle. The betrayal - touching the SAND! - was probably too much for poor Lalli.


End file.
